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ZAK SCHLEGEL + MARIE NGUYEN: BINAIRE
by
Zak Schlegel Marie Nguyen
16-Mar-10
A few weeks ago, two young artists, students, from Orange, California, sent us the single striking image above. It was created during one of the many collaborations between dancer and choreographer Zak Ryan Schlegel, and photographer and filmmaker Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen. They described it as "an experiment with flour and the kind of light that exists around dusk." We loved it, and asked them for more. This is what they came back to us with with.
We create with a focal point. Our projects never really center around dance, nor art or image - they exist as a whole. And I think that that is what you and I are about, artistically. Making the human process through image and movement, lightness and darkness, feel. We are site specific in that we seek an environment that we can change by creating in it. This little creek area will presumably never see dance and film again, and that is a project in and of itself - changing the energy of the environment in which we create.
We are not necessarily out to make a statement as much as we just want to feel. Guiding the human eye into a new experience... We create work as temporary and obscure solutions to the puzzle of existing, because the moments we create make the most sense, feel the most emotionally accurate, and visually manifest our collective imagination the closest they possibly can, given the human possibility of artistic creation. - Zak and Marie
Existing has been the biggest challenge in my life because I don't look at existing with an average eye. I deal with existence in my work primarily because it is the one thing that incessantly oppresses and frees me. Tantalizes and dejects. Lifts and drops me. Wonderfully tumultuous. This is the spirit of my natural impetus to move. I move with all of this weight. There is no absence of intention, because the intention is that there really is no intention. My mind is incapable of bracing these thoughts and therefore they must escape the body, through the body. The process of these thoughts escaping through the body is what I do. That is what I create and that is how I create. Existing through dance. Existing through movement. - Zak Schlegel
I create because there is no present, urgent alternative for me. No consequent negative stands. For sanity, joy and any other impressed extension of human vitals, I try to make art. As for the specific motivations behind each work, each justification is unique to each idea, each concept and each thought. I believe that moments continually possess a kinetic incentive, an essential affinity for change. For me, art has no static consequence. I change every day, so therefore what I make changes every day. I can only create from the indefinite. Pieces and concepts always come to me with their own unique structure. There are times when I make things erratically, and there are times when I have a heavy process. I create whatever comes to me with turbulent imperative. I usually work with visual mediums. As of now, Zak and I have been heavily collaborating on communicating movement based imagery. - Marie Nguyen
Patryk wrote:
stunning.
Posted on 21-Mar-10 at 11:24 pm | Permalink
jason wrote:
wow...these are beautiful.
Posted on 22-Mar-10 at 1:45 am | Permalink
Jason wrote:
Beyond what you see, beyond what you feel,
I am in the air, the dust, the grains, notice me,
I am but tossed freely around, yet cover you I do,
You can't get rid of me that easy, my cry makes no sound, yet around you I will stay.
I am beyond what you see and beyond what you feel
Posted on 24-Mar-10 at 10:12 pm | Permalink
ccc wrote:
can i say cliche?
Posted on 07-Apr-10 at 9:57 pm | Permalink
From dust till dawn « Publique wrote:
[...] via Posted by moonroque Filed in Linse, Strasse Tags: binaire, dusk, flour, marie hanhnhon nguyen, zak ryan schlegel Leave a Comment » [...]
Posted on 08-Apr-10 at 9:24 am | Permalink
moi wrote:
I've seen many teenagers doing that on flickr...so, yeah i agree with the cliche opinion above!
Posted on 08-Apr-10 at 11:51 am | Permalink
danimarie wrote:
beautiful.
love it
Posted on 09-Apr-10 at 8:38 pm | Permalink
Molly wrote:
Magical. Beautiful. Pure.
Peace.
Posted on 10-Apr-10 at 7:32 am | Permalink
vidor wrote:
wow, this is cheezy. I mean really, really cheezy.
Not only has this been done before (over and over again, from the 30's to the 80's) but the image quality is lame.
Just because you have a camera does not make you an artist. Get your own style, and spend more time studying light.
Nothing original or "stunning" to see here.
Posted on 07-Oct-10 at 8:44 am | Permalink
Nanya wrote:
Absolutely breathtaking.
Loved them!
Posted on 07-Oct-10 at 2:14 pm | Permalink
Mike wrote:
I'll have to agree with a few posters here. There is absolutely nothing compelling about the light, composition, colors or originality of these images. I'm not stunned and my breath is not taken away. I can't tell if the dancer is talented or if he's having a seizure, mainly because the photographer failed to capture his movements artfully.
Posted on 07-Oct-10 at 3:02 pm | Permalink
Veronica wrote:
At the risk of appearing unartistic and untalented, I DON'T GET IT.
Posted on 07-Oct-10 at 6:17 pm | Permalink
Plasticbrain wrote:
I'm sure the talented photographers and artists who made negative comments above would have seen far more merit in these photos if the subject was a fit young lady! You guys are hilarious ;-)
Posted on 08-Oct-10 at 1:55 am | Permalink
Mike wrote:
Plasticbrain:
Yes. You're right! You got us! It has nothing to do with the poor exposure, lack of vision or poor execution of the images. It all has to do with the fact it's a dude and not a hot babe.
Listen. If these are art students, they're going to hear the same criticism from their instructors.. if they aren't getting that kind of criticism, they're throwing their money away on an inferior education. Sure, there are some good things about these images, but nothing spectacular enough to warrant such high praise. This isn't Flickr and I'm not trying to invite them to my "Guys With Terrible Dandruff" group. But I can see how you would have gotten confused.
Posted on 08-Oct-10 at 9:50 am | Permalink
Ashley wrote:
LOVE it!!
Posted on 08-Oct-10 at 4:09 pm | Permalink
evan wrote:
nice combination of the windowlicker song in your music video, good job :)
Posted on 05-Nov-10 at 1:08 am | Permalink
anonymous wrote:
Zak Ryan Schlegel created a new blog:
http://starkinvention.tumblr.com/
It's lovely.
Posted on 18-Mar-11 at 6:46 pm | Permalink